


Pacific

by tsukinobara



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Pre-Series, Wee!chesters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-21
Updated: 2011-02-21
Packaged: 2017-10-15 20:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/164553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsukinobara/pseuds/tsukinobara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean forces himself to stare the Pacific in the face, if it had a face to stare at, and wills himself not to be afraid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pacific

Dean Winchester is seven years old the first time he sees the ocean. They're in California, he and Dad and Sammy, driving south from San Francisco, where they met a friend of Dad's named Benny. Benny was a big man with a soft voice, and he smelled like dogs and something sharp and dusty that tickled Dean's nose and made both him and Sammy sneeze. Benny's hands were the size of Sammy's head, but he was looking at Dean when he said "Looks like the kid forgot how to smile, man," and Dad told the boys to go play in the sandpit, stay _right there_ where he can see them, don't go anywhere. And Dean and Sammy both said "Yes sir" and sat their butts down in the sandpit and started building a fort.

And now they're cruising down the highway to someplace called Salinas, the sun setting off to their right, Dean breathing on the window and drawing stick figures and smiley faces to entertain his brother, even though that means he keeps catching the sun in his eyes where it's reflected off the water. It's a long way down over the side of the road and he's trying not to think about it. He's a little hungry and a little thirsty but he's trying not to think about that either. He knows they'll get something when they stop. But then Dad pulls the car off the highway and gets out, opens the back door, unbuckles Sammy from his booster seat, and lets him out too.

"Come here, Dean," he says. "I want to show you boys something."

He leads Dean and Sammy to the edge of the overlook, right up to the railing, and points out at the horizon. He tells them if they look really hard they might be able to see Hawaii and the Philippines and Asia, do they remember Terry Cho back in Colorado, he's from Korea. Dad tells them he was eighteen when he got his first good look at the Pacific, and then he tells them about Japanese ghosts and Chinese dragons and the Flying Dutchman and why you should never, ever shoot an albatross. Sammy asks what's an albatross, and Dad says it's a big white bird that follows ships around, and it's bad luck to kill one. Sammy squints at the ocean, contemplation on his serious little face, but all that water makes Dean a little nervous. He wants to look for hiding places and escape routes, and there are none to be had in the unbroken expanse of the blue Pacific.

"Don't be afraid of it," Dad whispers in his ear. "Respect it. Don't fear it. See the dolphins?" He points out and down, and Dean follows his finger to what looks like something breaking the surface of the water. "Can you see the dolphins, Sammy? Looks like a family, huh?"

Dean forces himself to stare the Pacific in the face, if it had a face to stare at, and wills himself not to be afraid. He doesn't understand respect except as it applies to listening to his Dad and doing what he says, but he understands fear, and he doesn't want to fear something his Dad so obviously likes. He wants Dad to think him brave.

They stand there for a few minutes, Dad squatting on the asphalt between the boys, his arms around their shoulders holding them close, the wind blowing off the ocean and ruffling Dean's hair. But then Sammy starts to fidget, and Dean starts to fidget, and Dad kisses them both on the tops of their heads, and whispers, so quietly Dean isn't sure he hears it right, that he loves them both very much, and he's trying, and he's sorry.

And then they all get back in the car, except Sammy puts up a fight, which he loses because Dad is bigger and stronger than he is, but he whines and then pouts until Dean manages to distract him, and by the time they roll into the parking lot of a Salinas motel Sammy is nodding off in his booster seat. But Dean is still awake, thinking about the dolphins and the albatross and the wide blue ocean stretching to the other side of the world.


End file.
